Drop-outs, at-risk, and alternatives
Many things have come together to get me thinking about alternative education, and general school discipline.
First, this month’s California Educator, the magazine for the California Teachers’ Association, is all about drop-out prevention, and re-integration. It features a number of intriguing programs around the state.
Next, the Requa case where a student was suspended for 40 days (yes, 4-0) for posting a secretly taped video of a teacher on YouTube. I think it’s safe to say that the discussion had a consensus thinking the punishment was way out of proportion to the crime. One comment on Pharyngula caught my eye. The commenter thought the punishment was out of proportion, but said,
“…where I went to high school at, if you missed more than 15 days of the school year (even with a valid reason like being hospitalized (which you could appeal with if you had a valid reason)) it was an automatic failure, and you had to repeat the grade.
So it maybe a vacation to them, but it’ll hurt them later when they try to move on, and their friends will be a grade ahead of them. I do think that the punishment exceeds the crime though.”
And my first thought was, well they may not return to school, a suspension like that is probably making them a high risk for dropping out.
Then, Glenn Moses, blogs about graduation at the alternative school he is teaching at.
Finally, I remembered a discussion at a recent union meeting. I was talking to a former colleague from when we were both working at Community Day school (a form of alternative placement in California). I opined that the problem where we were was that alternative/at-risk students are seen as a homogeneous group, but they aren’t. So they all get thrown in together, and maybe their needs get met (I know this is not always the case, the Educator article shows some great programs). I did a quick organizer (a-la Arthur Laffer) to show this with three axes, academic level, defiance level, and violence level, and the different needs they have. Here is my recreation:
So what are your thoughts on alternative education? Are my assumptions or choice of axes wrong? What do you think.
Alternative education! What a delightful thought. With the mess that our education system is in, any alternative should be an improvement. I hope ICT features prominently in your alternatives.
Kobus, Alternative Education comes out the the U.S. movement towards more universal education. It is an alternative to traditional means of getting a high school diploma. And yes, I think we’ll hear about ICT and online alternatives if Glenn Moses comments since he’s done a lot of work with that. Alternative is not usually seen as a way to change general education (how most students are educated), but as an exception for certain students. Maybe that needs to change too.
In the African context this alternative to the traditional way of getting a high school diploma is absolutely essential. Over 40% of high school graduates every year cannot find employment. There is a need in the third world for more entrepeneurs (small business catering for real needs of people). The traditional high school education simply does not equip the learners with the skills they will need to survive in the job situation or to create their own employment. We are experimenting with using ICT, not only to ensure that learners have the necessary computer skills to be able to compete in the market, but also to help them develop entrepeneurail skills, business knowldedge, marketing savvy, etc. I hope that there are some lessons we can learn from you guys.
I understand what you say about alternative not being seen as a way to change general education, but as an exception for certain students; in our case the exception is fast becoming the rule. And the frustration is that we are sitting with an unresponsive education system! What a delicious challenge to change that lot!
I’ve read that 20% of dropouts are gifted—that might be high, but for the gifted kids dropping out may in fact be acceleration–take the GED and move on to college.
I’m only a few years from retirement but I often wonder if the problem isn’t NCLB, teachers, curriculum mismatch, kids, My Space, parents–what if the problem with education today is much bigger. What if it’s just broken?
For one of my sons high school was just TOO long–he didn’t need 4 years and middle of junior year he started taking all his classes at the local junior college (luckily he had a gifted IEP).
I don’t know the answers but I remember so clearly Carol Ann Tomlinson (gifted ed guru from Un of Va) saying at a conference “a perfect match between curriculum and ability and there would be no discipline problem in your classroom”. All these kiddos who need “alternative” education, would they have needed it if their early schooling had been a match? Finished blabbing, N
Alice – Thanks for the mention and thanks for the nudge. 🙂
You mentioned what I do and at-risk students, but I really connected with the graph in your post about school violence. I’m once again coming home from my graduate class and taking a moment to blog. Last week we all turned in papers on school violence. This week the professor asked us to talk about the topics of our papers. As we went around the room most of the students wrote about bullying, some pushed the envelope and went after cyber-bulling, and unbelievably one person wrote about how some students like to be bullied. Really.
I wrote my paper on how the institution of school, and the process we call education, is violent and by putting students in this situation is the root cause of most of the violence we see in school. As what schools are trying to do to students becomes more and more disconnected to what students need we are going to see school violence rise.
We are living in a time when all students are at-risk. Until a truly constructivist approach is taken; until education becomes some that we do with students instead of to students; until education realizes that it is so far behind the power-curve that an apology is due we are creating an era where all students are at risk.
The students that are successful in this current system may be more at risk than any other students.
The room was more or less silent as this was espoused. There wasn’t even much support from the professor that gave the paper his highest score.
Does alternative education resolve this issue? The short answer is that it can. If the alternative institution is bold enough to reach out and make it happen. I can only be vigilant and hope that I am doing enough.
I just read a book called Walking after Midnight, by Katy Hutchison It is the true story of murder, forgiveness and restorative justice. There was a mention at the end of the book about programs around the world that are working with kids–one suggestion struck me as interesting. A program in Australia brings bullies and bulliers and their families together for face to face conflict resolution and reconciliation. So many times both parties remain faceless. I wonder if this would work?
Glenn, I love your point about regular students becoming at-risk students.
See what you’re saying, and what my graph says is that bullying victims (quiet students who are failing because of social problems) should NEVER be placed with violent students who are bullies, but you’ve been in alternative education, isn’t that what happens sometimes? The kid who is failing and falling behind because of bullying is placed in an alternative setting, with a bunch of kids who’ve just gotten out of juvie, some of who are bullies. The program is loosely structured, and that will NOT work for the violent student because they often need more structure. The only thing these kids have in common is failing, but they are treated to the same education. Is this really an alternative? I’d love for you to describe the program at your new school. If you post, I promise to link to it.
Nancy: I read an interesting lesson plan from Teaching tolerance, that is similar to this. It’s called shared journals, and the idea is to build empathy for victims. http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=783
I think it could have applications with blogging/the web. I didn’t do it because I think you need a larger pool than 30+ students in an elementary class to preserve anonymity.
As an old retired guy with 31 years of active education experience as a teacher, and administrator and 17 or so as a student I find the discussion of school violence interesting. However, the greatest violence in schools are not the physical one to one bullying but the violence to the spirit as we try to mold all students into a set that we can all feel comfortable with. This type of violence is not helped with alternative education as it is usually more of the same in a different form. Until we realize that all education is really one on one based on mutual respect between the student and the teacher we will never successful deal with the violence in the education system. Teacher are often the most brutalizing factors in the public school setting and students learn early to emulate what they see from the teacher. The student who is shown little respect by the teacher is surely fair came for students who lack the sensitivity to deal with those who may seem out of the mainstream.
We warehouse students in buildings housing 2,500-3,000 students and move them on bell schedules through overcrowded halls monitored by armed police officers. We refuse to remove violent criminals from the midst under the the cloak of equal educational opportunity and wonder why schools are a violent place.
But these are rambling rants of the old. But I do enjoy reading what you young educators have to say
Can I say, “Like father like son,” I’m seeing where Glenn gets his educational philosophy from, and I’m impressed.
Comprehensive high schools are a compromise that are built for maximum adult convenience with minimum expense, offering programs to please the lowest common denominator. Reminds me of network t.v. and we see where that is today. I liked getting lost in my high school of 3,300, but not everyone finds that enjoyable. Unfortunately, we don’t often get a choice of where to go.
We repeat the mistakes in alternatives, but trying to make it one size fits all, and it doesn’t.
Thanks for the comments everyone.